[senco-forum] Behaviour and SENCos (was: New Senco)

If SMT (SLT? I'm out of touch) want you to pick up naughty

From: "brian hepburn" <hepburnbrian at hotmail.com>

> If SMT (SLT? I'm out of touch) want you to pick up naughty
> kids who can read  already, tell SMT to naff off.

Great email (as always) Brian raising some very important
questions in a jovial fashion:

To what extent is poor behaviour ('naughtiness') a SEN?
Is naughtiness often covering other SEN?
Is there a difference between naughtiness, disaffection and
EBD (BESD)?
Should any of these be part of a SENCos responsibities?
Should a SENCo be responsible for PSPs in some or all cases?

My opinion is that behaviour in general should not be part
of the SENCos role. However BESD/EBD should. The difference?
Well a disaffected or 'naughty' child is choosing to
misbehave and is perfectly capable of behaving well. An EBD
child for a substantial part of the time finds it very
difficult to behave without some sort of support. It is
these children which the SENCo has a responsibility for
providing for their SEN.

Of course the $6m question is how you tell the two types of
child apart.

As a SENCo in a PRU its easier. The purely disaffected kids
tend to behave well and work well when at a PRU (as do many
EBD), whereas EBD kids will often continue to have
significant problems accessing the curriculum. It is these
children who I seek statement for. The first group should
probably never have been permanently excluded. The second
group should have got statements which provide the correct
support for their SEN (yes I do realise how difficult this
is to achieve)

Okay this is an out and out oversimplification. I just
thought Brian's statement was very interesting as it
encapsulates many questions one could ask about SENCos and
behaviour.

Mark

--
Mark Norwood
www.avssc.org
"The e-mail of the species is more deadly than the mail"
(Stephen Fry)

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